A Call to Stay; A Vision to Go (Acts 26: 6-15) 5/5/13

            “Go West, young man,” said nineteenth century author Horace Greeley, although he probably borrowed it from newspaperman John Soule. He was referring to Manifest Destiny, the 1850’s movement to populate the American West and the desire of many to join the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific. While the movement that may have been inevitable, it left many casualties in its wake.

          Mankind’s drive for adventure, to conquer, colonialize and occupy, is nothing new. It has been both blessing and curse, depending largely upon whether you are the mover or the moved. It is certainly not unique to emperors and kings. We can also find it in God’s Word. For instance, Abraham was called to a great Bedouin dynasty, Moses to deliver Israel from Egypt, David to unite the Northern and Southern Kingdoms of Israel.

          In some ways, Paul’s second missionary journey seems like a blueprint for God’s manifest destiny, for that second missionary journey could easily not have happened, and just as easily have gone in a different direction. The fact that it did happen, and that from it came the spread of Christianity to the West, has much to do with the survival of Christianity and its worldwide influence. And it all started with the Holy Spirit saying “No” to Paul.

          Ever start to take a step in the dark, and something holds you back? Ever start to do a job and it just won’t happen, as though some invisible hand is restraining you? Ever start to talk about something serious with someone and you know right away it’s the wrong time? We all have experiences like this, when somehow we are led to inaction. Usually it turns out that whatever we were about to do was not a good idea. Call it instinct. Call it Providence. Whatever it is, sometimes it can save your life, or save a relationship, or change the course of your life or someone else’s.

After the famous Jerusalem Council of Acts 15, where the leaders of the Jerusalem church affirmed Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles, Paul and Barnabas go down to Syrian Antioch. Soon after, Barnabas suggests that they return to the cities they had previously visited, but they disagree over whether to take Mark. This results in a split. Paul chooses Silas and departs for the region of Cilicia. In the city of Lystra, Paul meets a young man named Timothy, who joins the ministry.

Apparently Paul wants to go east into Asia, but Scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit forbade Paul to speak the word in Asia. Paul then wants to go north to Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus does not allow him. They continue westward to Troas, where Paul has a vision. In the vision, a man from Macedonia stands in front of him and urges him to come to Macedonia and help. Paul concludes that God has called them to preach the Gospel in Macedonia.

          The Trinity is all over this passage.  The Holy Spirit forbids Paul to speak in Asia. The Spirit of Jesus stops Paul from turning North or East.  A vision from God propels Paul the way he is to go. Paul is stopped twice from striking out in a certain direction. While we are not given the details, we are certainly made privy to the source of Paul’s inaction. God is preventing him! Paul is called to stay. Then, and only after two false starts, Paul concludes that God has called him to Macedonia. Paul’s direction comes from a vision in the night, perhaps in a dream.

          So armed with God’s vision, Paul and his friends go west to Macedonia, the region which we refer to today as Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece, or today’s Eastern Europe.

          Acts 16 is also the first recorded appearance of Luke as a participant in Paul’s ministry and not just Paul’s physician. Luke apparently joined Paul’s group, perhaps in Troas, as they set out for Macedonia. He may have come to treat Paul’s “thorn in the flesh.” Perhaps this ailment is what God used to hold Paul back temporarily. At any rate, Luke now narrates the story using the pronouns “we” and “us” throughout the passage. He is not only reporting; he himself is witnessing as they take the Gospel westward.

Paul’s group arrives in Philippi, a leading city and Roman colony in Macedonia. It was customary for Paul to first go to the synagogue for Sabbath worship, but Philippi had no synagogue. So they go outside the gate to the riverside, thinking it to be a good place for prayer and worship. And once again, Paul is thrown a curve. Rather than talking and sharing in the synagogue or to some gathering of men outside the city, Paul and his disciples engage with a group of women. Among them is Lydia, a seller of purple goods. She has come from Thyatira to set up her marketing business.

Lydia must have been quite a merchant. She was in a business that required a lot of capital. Purple goods were in great demand and also in short supply. The purple dye had to be gathered drop by drop from a certain shellfish. To dye a pound of wool in purple cost the equivalent of about $350. Lydia was probably at the top of the social scale of the time. Yet here she was at the river’s edge with a women’s prayer group. And Luke tells us that “the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.” She and her household were baptized. Lydia became Paul’s first European convert.

This was Paul’s second missionary journey, but he had not been this far west the first time. Others had preceded him, and Lydia was probably not the first convert in Europe. But it is noteworthy that the first European convert recorded in God’s Word was a woman. Lydia’s home was to become a base of operations for Paul in future journeys. Her wealth and generosity probably helped finance his ministry. Perhaps God used Luke’s gospel here to point out how important women were to the spread of the Gospel from the very beginning.

While these stories are helpful to show us where and how the Apostle Paul’s ministry began to penetrate beyond the confines of Palestine, they are even more important to illustrate how God worked then and how he works now. Paul was held back. God the Holy Spirit and God the Son held him back from going east and north into Asia. This must have been confusing and frustrating to Paul. We are not told how Paul was restrained, but clearly God restrained Paul from going his intended way. For a time, Paul was called to stay.

Like Paul, we have sometimes thought sure we were in a position to do God’s work, only to be thwarted and held back. Obviously, Asia was reached by Christian missionaries, but it was not God’s will for Paul to carry that banner. God had other plans for Paul.

When God was ready for Paul, Paul was given the vision to go. For Paul, it came in the form of a vision in the night, but God’s call comes in as many ways as there are people. Some of us are called to go across the street, others to the far regions of the world. The call is no less important in our dens and kitchens than it is in third world huts and grass houses. And when the vision comes, we should do as Paul did. We should immediately make plans to follow that call.

Equally important was the way God chose to use Paul in Philippi. Rather than debate with philosophers, as he did in Athens, or engage with religious leaders, as he did in synagogues, God took Paul to a riverbank and a small group of women. God led Paul to Lydia, opened her heart to receive the message, and from such unlikely beginnings, established a base of operations that was to aid Paul and others in their mission to Europe.

The work of God can be done by all of us, but it is done best when we are guided by the Master. He will take us to people and places that we would never have gone under our own direction. In what Paul might have characterized as misdirection, he was introduced to Timothy, his son in the faith, to Lydia, his first European convert, and to Luke in yet another calling, as he grew from doctor to reporter to missionary in his own right.  

The prophet Isaiah reminds us that “From days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear, nor has the eye seen a God besides You, who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him” [Isa. 64: 4]. It’s amazing what can happen when we listen. Where one door closes, another is opened. When we wait for God, great things are possible. We too can experience visions of our own. They may come from prayer or conversation or just being still. When we wait for God, he will be faithful to guide us. As Paul found out for himself, a call to stay is just the prelude to a vision to go.